Amelia stirred awake when one of her maids opened the curtains, letting the morning sun in. With a grunt she sat up, and rubbed her eyes, more than willing to sell her firstborn to Satan for more time to sleep. She kicked her blankets off, stretching her arms up above her head. The maid, had pretty blue eyes and a button nose with broad shoulders and small feet, and name was Elli. She helped Amelia out of bed and grabbed the dress for Amelia to wear from the chair. The two were on good terms, not quite friends but definitely not enemies, it complicatedly simple.
Usually Amelia didn't need help getting herself dressed, but puffy dresses, corsets and falling off horses and break her arm made it so getting dress was a two people job. The two gotten used to the awkward mornings and went on with their lives.
Elli brushed out any wrinkles with her hand before taking a step back making sure there wasn't any imperfections in the light blue dress. "At least this dress doesn't make you look like a sickly plumb."
Amelia snickered, "Agreed, but you know how mother is with her traditions and la dee da. She loves them dearly."
"Yes she does," answered the maid placing a silver in cased around a red jewel earing on Amelia's left ear, "But she is my Queen. It's not my place to say anything bad about her loves." She then placed the matching earing on Amelia's right ear.
"Mmh," she mumbled, not wanting to start up a fight. Normally Amelia would say something about social classes being silly and how ridiculous it was. She was in the highest social class and didn't fully understand anything, at least that what he mother kept saying whenever she brought it up.
Another maid, this one had dark brown eyes, a sharper nose and a broad nose, came in after knocking and waiting for permission to enter. Amelia let her in after the first knock. Despite having more than enough to eat the maid, Emily looked like a frail stick, "My lady, I have your schedule for the day."
With a nod from Amelia, Emily continued. "You have breakfast in about twenty minutes. English at nine, o'clock sharp, Your tutor had asked me earlier to remind you about tardiness and how it takes away from learning time. After your English lesson you have arithmetic at ten twenty then music at eleven. After music you have lunch with your mother at twelve eleven. Geography at one then your languages at two after that you have plenty of free time, till dinner which you will be eating with your brother at six o'clock. Then it's dancing lessons then tea time with your father at eight."
Amelia sighed, it felt like a lot, but she knew her other family members had much busier schedules than she did. Even with that knowledge it didn't take away the annoyance of having such a busy schedule. "Alright thank you, for informing me Emily," she said, twisting her bracelet around her wrist, wishing she had smaller wrists. "Tell the chef I'll be having breakfast in the breakfast hall." Emily nodded and scurried out with a quick, 'Yes, My lady.'
The drip down the breakfast hall took about seven minutes. The halls were a pain to get through. More than enough space to house a village comfortably yet the stairs had to be across the castle from her room. She spent an extra four minutes chatting with her tutors.
Conversations between them were interesting, since not only did they believe censoring was foolish, they were coffee addicts who didn't function well without their coffee. Amelia had a minor coffee addiction but she could function in the morning. It was amusing about what they talked about and said before they had their coffee. It was usually cranky nonsense.
The three deciding to walk down to the breakfast hall together. Talking at they walked they could smell breakfast waffling out into the hallway. They sat down at the large wooden table in the middle of the room. Kitchen servants had opened the curtains before they arrived, allowing morning sunlight enter the room whether they liked it or not.
One of the male kitchen servants came out from the kitchen carrying in a tray with a three cups of coffee along with things to add to their coffee like milk and cream. The three liked doing it themselves since Amelia liked mixing up her coffee and the other two were extremely picky about their coffee. "The chef makes lovely coffee," Amelia commented, adding cream and sugar to hers.
"Indeed, she does, we're lucky to have her," replied Lukas tiredly. He still hadn't woken up yet, neither did Tino. The two got awfully cranky without their coffee. It was incredible that they were in such a good mood. The whole castle made sure they got at least one cup of coffee after a particularly nasty day of crankiness.
Breakfast came out, simple sunny side up eggs, buttered toast, some bacon and sausage, with a bowl of fruit on the side for each of them. It was mostly Amelia supplying the conversation and keeping it running, like she usually did. After they were down eating she and Tino headed up to the classroom, next to the library. Tino was the main tutor. He was one of the only tutors that stuck with Amelia. Lukas, and Roderich were the other two.
Lessons were generally a hit or miss with Amelia. Either she was extremely interested in the top and would study the topic thoroughly or she wasn't. There was very little in between. Music, was taught by Roderich in the room across the hall and four doors down. Mr. Edelstein welcomed her in and immediately began the lesson. Amelia didn't have a natural talent for music instruments like her brother did, but she refused to let that stop her from learning how to play. She was pretty good with the piano and violin.
Music lessons ended thirty minutes earlier than usual. Roderich had a terrible headache and noise made it worse. Amelia not wanting to go early to lunch with her mother went outside for a walk around the castle walls. She ached to go back out and explore more of the outside world. She wanted to know more, experience more and make some friends. Of course her brother was her best friends, but siblings were stuck with you no matter what, they don't count.
With a hard sigh, she headed back inside. Amelia bit her bottom lip, noticing that she sighed a lot. It was almost like glass shattered which she realized how much she and her brother sighed, excluding their little language made out sighs.
The guards opened the door and allowed Amelia in. She walked down the hall and up the stairs to the room she and her mother had lunch in. Her mother was already sitting down at the white table with a large white cover with matching napkins. Amelia curtseyed before sitting down.
"Hello, Mother," she greeted with a grin. She adjusted her skirt so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable to sit. "It was quite a pleasant morning."
"It was quite nice," Alice sipped at her tea. She could nearly always be found sipping some sort of tea. It was comical. "Lunch with be hear shortly."
"Oh good. I'm starving," replied Amelia.
Alice rolled her eyes, "Darling, you're not starving, you're hungry. It would be best to avoid exaggerating so much. It's not fitting for your stature." Ironic considering the higher your stature the more you exaggerated. Her father was a perfect example of this. He used a lot of exaggerations in her grand speeches.
"My apologies, Mother. I'll avoid exaggerating in the future."
"Good," Alice replied, going quite. She struggled to decide how she to word what she was about to say next, "Darling," she said slowly, making sure this was what she wanted to say. "As you've noticed you're getting older. You're getting old enough to consider who you want to marry."
Amelia squeaked, startled by her mother, "Excuse me? Marriage? I'm only fourteen. That's much too young to be considering marriage."
"You'll be fifteen in a couple months and then you will be sixteen and then seventeen. Hopefully you'll be married by then. It goes by so quickly. Besides my mother was married by fifteen."
"No," Amelia blurted out loudly. "I still have time. I don't want to be married bt them."
"Of course you have plenty of time," Alice said with a soothing voice, as she reached over to the table to pat her daughter's hand. Amelia immediately recoiled at the touch. "I'm saying you need to go out and find yourself a husband by tomorrow. That's ridiculous. I'm saying you should start preparing yourself now."
Feeling like her mother just gave her a death sentence Amelia went deathly quiet. Two maids brought in lunch shortly after. It was grilled fish caught that morning with fried seasoned vegetables and fruit tart for desert. Amelia had coffee brought in while Alice's kettle was refilled.
Amelia cut her fish up angrily. Alice rolled her eyes, cutting hers up properly. They ate in strained silence. Alice didn't want to see her daughter alone forever, but she knew Amelia would throw a fit if she arranged one for her. She cursed their shared trait of stubbornness.
Her chair screeched sharply against the floor as she stood up, excusing herself without waiting for her mother's permission. Alice sighed sipping at her tea. She left the room, with pursed lips.
It wasn't long till Amelia found herself pacing up and down her bedroom. With a dramatic sigh she flopped herself on her puffy bed. Completely frustrated with her new problem. Marriage was horrifying to think about, she grew up hearing about horror stories about it. Amelia would much rather become a maiden like the stories her other used to read her and her brother.
She began picturing herself climbing the big walls, like a story character, standing on the very top of them. Being able to see the colors of the sunsets and forests and all the animals she's only heard about. She wanted to see it all. Hold it all in her hands. She wanted to have friends to share her adventures with. Amelia got up from her bad and sat on the widow still tucking a pillow close to herself. She was planning on sneaking out later but she decided sooner the better. She decided to sneak out early the next day right after breakfast. Breakfast was an important meal of the day.
Amelia glanced at the old grandfather clock and began preparing a bag only to look at again since she didn't actually see the time the first time. The clock glared down at her from every angle. As a child she was terrified of it, refusing to be in the same room with it since it looked like a monster. She hid the bag full under her bed before sitting down on the bed. She had plenty of hours to waste
Her eyes widen when she realized she had geography and then languages still, and would be late for her geography. She jumped up from her bed and ran out the door, running through the hallway, ignoring her mother yelling at her to not run in the hallways. She panted after running in the room. Tino was already there waiting for her with an amused smile on his lips.
"I see that you forgot again," he teased leading her to her seat. He began his lessons after getting out a map and a globe. The lesson wasn't boring but it wasn't exactly interesting either. Just memorizing names and the language they spoke there.
Tino waved goodbye as she left and head to her language class with Lukas. He was the head language speaker, speaking more language than she knew existed. Most of them were dead languages he used to read and translate old books. A hobby of his. Lessons went by fast, Amelia had a knack for languages. She was great at speaking and learning at them, much better at than her brother.
Lukas didn't wave her off when lessons were, instead he went back to his books and his coffee. She had to review vocabulary for his class but that was it. It was nice not having much homework.
She wounded up in the library. She usually found herself there whenever the General was busy. He was busy much more now due to his wife having twins. They were adorable. She saw them a month ago at the party he held to welcome their birth. The books kept her just as entertained as he would have. The book she began to read was silly and old, but still was pretty interesting, interesting enough to keep her distracted for a few hours.
Amelia glanced up at the clock and realize if she didn't leave now she would be late for dinner with her brother. She set the book down and hurried out the library, heading down to the dining hall. She loved talking with her brother. Amelia gave her brother a big hug when she entered the room.
"I had lunch with father today," started Matthew after Amelia sat down. "He had some interesting things to say." Amelia raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue. He did so. "He said that we're going to be married off if we don't find a spouse by our eighteen birthday. I think that's ridiculous. Father's mother didn't find a spouse till her mid-twenties."
Amelia groaned, "We're only fourteen. They honestly expect us to find the love of our life by then?" Matthew shrugged, just about to say something but the maid set down dinner in front of them. Roasted pork with corn and buttered carrots. She poured them drinks before disappearing behind the kitchen doors.
"Did you two talk about anything else? You did say something things."
Mathew nodded, "I did, there's rumors floating about. Some say that the Neederick kingdom is preparing for war. Others say they're just rebuilding some damage that was done from previous wars."
"I heard some whispers about that on Sunday," she replied. "But if we do anything about the rumors it could end up as us starting the war and that wouldn't be good."
"Yes that's what father said. We discussed some ways to delay war as long as we can. It still wouldn't hurt to start preparing though," he said cutting up his pork. "There's some more rumors, most are utter rubbish. But there's some interesting ones, like the old king of Needrick sent his children away before his brother killed him for the throne."
"Oh really?" Amelia sat up straighter, looking more interested, "I didn't know he had children. When did he sent them away?"
"No one but he and the queen apparently knew about them," Matthew shrugged. "I believe it was sometimes seven months ago, since he was killed seven months ago. They could be anywhere right now, assuming they exist."
"I suppose so," replied Amelia picking at her carrots. Carrots weren't her favorite. She didn't really liked cooked vegetables, they tasted too mushy. "What do you think the siblings look like?"
Matthew snorted, rolling his eyes, "Well I assume like their mother and father. Besides if they do exist no one would know what they would look like the old king was extremely paranoid."
"Apparently rightfully so, his brother did kill him and banished his wife for power."
"Anyways there's supposedly three of them two girls and a boy in the middle. I heard the youngest would be our age. Assuming it's true."
"I guess it might not be true, but it's still pretty interesting." She propped up a smile and shifted the mood into a happier one deciding to switch topics. Amelia again supplied most of the conversation as they ate. After dinner the two walked to their dancing lessons and proceed to get scowled at by the teacher for being terrible dancers. Neither of them were any good.
After lessons, the twins split up. Amelia left to go have tea with their father and Matthew left for some more lessons. Amelia felt bad for him, his days were literally lesson after lesson after lesson with only small breaks for food. She entered the room she had lunch with her mother in, and curtseyed at her father. Francis stood up and hugged her tightly. They both felt like they never get enough bonding time.
"Hello father," she greeted with a huge grin, breaking the hug. They sat down and started talking about what she and Mathew had talked about dinner. Francis add more juice to the story. The two loved hearing about gossip.
Amelia excused herself after spending more than an hour and a half with her father and headed to bed feeling tired from the long day.